Monster
by Lynessence
Summary: Both hated by the world. Both monsters. Both so alone ... Until she fell out of a window and landed on him... *Oneshot*


Gaara sighed darkly as he aimlessly walked down the streets of Konoha.

He was bored. He had no reason to train. He knew he could defeat his future opponent. He wanted to kill; the weak sound ninja from the night before hadn't been enough for him.

Gaara turned on to an alleyway to get out of the crowds. His sensei had told him he could not kill anyone else and draw more attention to them because of "the plan."

He didn't even care about that precious little plan. Why should he care about what the country who's tried to kill him for the past six years want? But he did get to kill in the end, so he'd obey.

Suddenly Gaara's sand shield went up and there was a loud _thunk_. A malicious smirk spread across his face. _Maybe this one will play with me for a while…_ thought Gaara. He dropped his shield and looked at a lump of flesh on the ground.

"Uuuugghhh. That hurt…" it groaned.

Gaara let out a long depressed sigh. The new "enemy" was just a small, female child. Although it's reasoning for attacking him might be interesting.

"What were you trying to do?" he asked.

"What? Oh….I was trying to grab the laundry but I slipped and fell out the window…." The girl sat up. She had dark brown, shaggy hair that fell to her chin. She had a bandage on her left cheek and several wrappings on her arms and legs. She wore a bright blue T-shirt with black pants and shoes. She also wore a shuriken holder.

"You fell?" he asked trying not to growl at her. Gaara's monster was starting to get excited again because of the blood trickling down her face.

"Yeah, the wind blew the blanket to the very edge up there," —she pointed above her— "so I climbed out to get it but I lost my footing and fell."

"What is your name?" he asked. He needed to get the child away from him.

"Kyoko. What's yours?" She gave him a big toothy smile. He liked that.

"Gaara. Where are your parents?"

"Gaara….that's a nice name…"

"Where are your parents?"

"Huh? I don't know….probably on the other side of town with all my brothers and sisters…"

"Then why are you here?"

"'Cause they don't like me….they call me a monster and they don't want me around anybody else….so I live alone on this side and stay away…" Kyoko's smile faded as she said this.

Gaara suddenly felt a great deal of pity and sadness for Kyoko. He had a very strong urge to comfort her. To protect her. _What are these feelings? _He asked himself. _Why do I care? _

Gaara shook his head. He wanted to get away and go destroy something, but he could. Something was subconsciously keeping him from leaving, but what? After thinking about it he figured it out.

It was her. For some reason he couldn't leave her. At least, not like that. Not with all the blood that was now freely flowing down her face.

Gaara took a deep breath and then quickly picked up Kyoko. Then he swiftly made his way to where Temari was.

"Temari," said Gaara appearing behind her.

"Gaara!" exclaimed Temari spinning around. Then she spotted Kyoko, whose face was now mostly caked in blood.

Temari's eyes went wide as she jumped to the worst possible conclusion. "Gaara, please tell me you didn't kill a leaf child…"

"I'm not dead," said Kyoko, surprising Temari.

"Fix her," demanded Gaara as he held Kyoko out at arm's length.

"What?" asked Temari, still confused at what was going on.

"Her head, Fix it. Make it stop bleeding." Gaara set Kyoko down and took a few steps back. Kyoko took a few wobbly steps and then started to fall. Gaara used his sand to keep her upright.

"Uh…..yeah….come on, sweetie. Let's go bandage your head." Temari picked up Kyoko and headed off to the medical center. She was still thoroughly confused as to why Gaara hadn't killed the child at the first sight of blood.

When she was sure that she was far away enough from Gaara she tried to get some answers from Kyoko.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"Huh?" asked Kyoko. She hadn't been paying attention. She was too busy thinking about the strange boy, Gaara, that had helped her.

"What happened between you and Gaara?"

"Oh….I fell out of a window and landed on him….sort of…"

"You landed on his sand shield, I presume?"

"Probably…"

"Heh, you're lucky to be alive."

"Why?"

"It's complicated, but the gist of it is that he's got a monster inside him."

"He's a monster too? Cool…I've never met another monster before…."

Temari skidded to a stop. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She didn't think it was possible for such a sweet looking child to also contain a monster. "You've got a monster too?"

"Well….everybody calls me a monster….so I've just come to know that I am a monster."

"Why?!"

"I don't really know….but I think it has something to do with my eyes. I have to admit, they do look pretty scary…"

"Your eyes?" Temari looked at Kyoko and a chill ran down her spine. Though her eyes were mostly covered by her bangs, the blood red, demonic eyes were still clearly visible. "Oh…."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Kyoko sighed. "You can put me down now."

"No way," said Temari snapping out of her stupor. "You hit your head hard enough to cause blood to flow. We need to bandage your head and stop the bleeding. You've probably got a concussion as well…."

"I heal quickly and the bleeding stopped a while ago. And, if I do have a concussion, well, that makes seven for this month."

"Seven!!!!! How many times do you fall on your head?!"

"Well….It's not so much I fall, that I get slammed into walls and trees and other solid objects."

"What are you doing? Do you go to the academy? I heard it was tough, but I didn't know it was _that _though…."

"It's not. My classmates just don't like me. They take out their dislike by bullying me."

"And the teachers let them get away with this!?!?!?!"

"They don't like me either….except for Iruka Sensei….he's nice and understands. So does his girlfriend, Mitsuki. She's nice too."

Temari was speechless. She couldn't believe that Kyoko could talk about all this and still smile.

"That's why I'm all bandaged up all the time," continued Kyoko. "I get beat up a lot."

"I thought you healed quickly."

"I don't heal _that _quickly. With all the damage they deliver I'd be dead if I didn't heal as fast as I did."

"Why don't you fight back?"

"Because then I'd really be a monster."

"Huh?"

"I don't fight back because then I might revert to my monster mode. If I do that then it's only proving that what they say is true. If I don't fight back, then they're the monsters. Not me."

Temari could only wonder at Kyoko's strange philosophy.


End file.
